Conference on peace in Syria to be held in Switzerland in January

The United Nations plans to precede its internationally brokered peace talks between Syria’s warring sides next month with a one-day meeting of foreign ministers in the Swiss city of Montreux.

A daylong gathering for speeches by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and more than two dozen other foreign ministers is planned for Jan. 22 at a Montreux hotel.

The conference will break up for a day and reconvene on Jan. 24 in Geneva for the start of actual negotiations between Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and armed Syrian opposition groups.